Washington Football Team’s starting quarterback Dwayne Haskins Jr. will wear a decal on his helmet honoring Davon McNeal, the 11-year-old killed in Southeast in July, during the team’s first game this weekend.

He posted a video of his helmet on Instagram on Friday and tweeted, “I remember when I was 11, couldn’t imagine losing my life and my family. Prayers up, rest in heaven young king.”

https://twitter.com/dh_simba7/status/1304465152100765699

Some of his teammates, as well, will be wearing decals with the names of other Black people killed, some in recent months, including wide receiver Steven Sims, Jr. wearing the name of George Floyd, offensive tackle Geron Christian paying tribute to Willie Sturgis, Jr., and cornerback Danny Johnson honoring Alton Sterling.

McNeal was shot in Southeast earlier this year while attending a “Stop the Violence” cookout on the Fourth of July. He was a star running back and linebacker with dreams of making it to the NFL. “That’s all he talked about. And [he would say] when I make it, I’m going to buy my mother the biggest house I can find,” his grandmother Wanda Ayala told DCist/WAMU earlier this year.

On social media, Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White said DaVon’s mother Crystal is happy to see her son’s name on Haskins’ helmet.

Earlier this year. Haskins attended Black Lives Matter protests and said he did so because he wanted to do something more intimate and genuine than tweeting or posting videos. He said he wanted to be a conduit for the team’s activist efforts and keep the movement’s focus fresh in people’s minds.

“I feel like a lot of things in life, we talk about it for a minute then we let it go a couple of minutes later,” Haskins said. “Personally, for me, it has been Black Lives Matter my whole life, my whole parents’ lives, and their parents’ lives,” Haskins said at the time.

This summer’s wave of protests has inspired many local athletes to use their platforms to advocate for change. Washington Mystics guard Natasha Cloud announced earlier this year she would not play this season in order to continue her fight against racial injustice following the killing of George Floyd. She also lead members of her team, along with Bradley Beal of the Wizards, during a Juneteenth march against bigotry and police brutality.

Last month, the Mystics decided not to play their game against the Atlanta Dream in protests over the shooting of Jacob Blake. That came after the NBA postponed multiple games earlier in the day after the Milwaukee Bucks didn’t take the court against the Orlando Magic also in protest.

On the baseball field, the Nationals also canceled one of their games earlier this year to bring attention to the racial and social injustice.

Matt Blitz contributed reporting